Old Rochester eyes Div. 4 titles

Friday

May 27, 2011 at 12:01 AM

The Old Rochester track teams are recharging their batteries after sweeping the South Coast Conference championship last weekend and taking aim on doing well at the Division 4 class meet Friday afternoon at North Reading.

BILL ABRAMSON

MATTAPOISETT — The Old Rochester track teams are recharging their batteries after sweeping the South Coast Conference championship last weekend and taking aim on doing well at the Division 4 class meet Friday afternoon at North Reading.

After competing in seven meets over a 14-day span, the Bulldogs have been allowed to let their bodies heal and get ready for the challenge against the best Division 4 has to offer.

The top four finishers in each division advance to the All-State meet the following weekend at Bridgewater State University. The top finishers there get to compete at the New England championships the following week.

The Old Rochester boys, who finished second in the conference dual-meet season to GNB Voc-Tech, have 11 events where they have a top-5 seeded competitor with a realistic chance to score points. Both squads are hoping to improve on their respective 12th-place finishes in the Division 4 meet last spring.

"Our boys are particularly strong right now," coach Bill Tilden said. "I think we have an outside shot at winning the division if they can do their personal bests."

Dourdeville is also seeded second in the mile, Lavoie is seeded third in the shot put and senior Ian Knapton is seeded third in the 400 and fourth in the long jump.

A year ago, Dourdeville won the mile, Lavoie was 15th in the discus and ninth in the shot put and Knapton finished third in the long jump and eighth in the 400.

"This is the first year they're allowing (athletes to run) two events," Tilden said. "Dana has run his times pretty much what he ran in back-to-back (mile and 2-mile) races. I don't want to tax him out, but we'll see how we're doing in the meet and if we need him for a race or a leg on the relay.

"Sixty-eight (Hamilton-Wenham) points won the division a year ago, so we have a chance," Tilden added. Carver finished second with 41 points. The scoring is 10-8-6-4-2-1 points for the top six places.

Other top 5 candidates for Old Rochester are Mike Tiger (third in the 800), Dan Donohue (fourth in the 200), Mike Wyman (fifth in the 2-mile) and Evan LaCombe (fifth in the 400 hurdles). Last year Donohue was seventh in the 200 and Tiger was fourth in the 800.

"I feel Knapton has 21 feet (long jump) in him," Tilden predicted, "and we had to shut Christian down because he was working so hard. Those No. 1 rankings make him nervous."

The two-event performers have to get some space between them to do some recuperating, something that doesn't always happen.

"The long jump and 400 isn't bad because they're quite a bit apart," Tilden said of Knapton's pair. "Guys doing double running (Dourdeville) are in a tough spot. The shot and discus are opposite one another. They do the boys shot and girls discus at the same time, then switch. They should be far enough apart, but I would have liked it other way around, the shot then the discus for Christian. The shot has a tendency to tire out Christian's arm."

The temperatures are headed toward the low 80s today, requiring finding shade a priority. Last week at the SCC meet, the Old Rochester kids were camped under the bleachers and out of the sun.

"We've worked really hard to reel this group in," Tilden said about how each one builds to his peak performance. "Each kid has a certain point where he wants to peak. For some, it's qualifying for the states; for others it's this meet, and for someone like Dana, he's looking at the New Englands."

The ORR girls have some quality, but not a lot of top-5 performers, meaning the girls will need to improve to move up and complete an indoor-outdoor 2011 Division 4 sweep. Old Rochester won the indoor Division 4 meet with 40 points, two better than Bromfield.

Ally Saccone is top seeded in the 400 hurdles and Alexandra Bare is No. 1 in the discus. Saccone and Paige Santos are seeded fifth in the high jump and Saccone anchors the fourth-seeded 4x400 relay.

"Our kids have gotten some time off and they're rarin' to go," Tilden said of both squads. "The girls have been peaking at the right time. I hope they didn't peak last week, but they didn't practice hard this week and the rest will help them."

Fairhaven's Ashley Pereira is seeded sixth in the 800 at the Division 4 meet.

None of the Wareham, Apponequet and Bishop Stang qualifiers are in the top five at the Division 3 meet Friday at Oliver Ames.

The GNB Voc-Tech boys, which have entries in almost all events, but only have the 4x800 relay team seeded second among top-5 performers. Dartmouth's Grunde Brandso is third at 50-8½ in the shot put as both schools compete Saturday in the Division 2 meet at Bridgewater State University.

Dartmouth's Devyn Pryor is seeded fourth in the girls Division 2 800.

New Bedford High is another school with plenty of entrants, but few top-5 seeded performers in the Division 1 meet Saturday at Andover High.

The girls team has Courtney Williams seeded first (40-5¼) in the shot put, Kenzie Offley third in the 400 hurdles, Courtney Neves is fourth in the 800 and Brianna Perry is tied for fourth in the high jump.

Sprinter-long jumper Phito Gondre is seeded in the top 5 for the dash (second) and the long jump (fourth). Pole vaulter Patryk Backiel is seeded second and triple jumper Justin Calendar is seeded fifth.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.